CFB Last Night: Any poll voter who includes Hawaii in their Top 25 should have their privileges revoked, even with Hawaii's last-second win to remain unbeaten. If they end up in the BCS simply for being unbeaten after 12 games -- with that ridiculously easy schedule that makes Kansas look like they've played LSU for 10 weeks -- THAT would be the BCS' biggest crime ever.

Oregon's Dennis Dixon out for the season: That's really a shame. Can you remember the last time a Heisman front-runner was injured like this this late in the season (or national-title contender who lost their best player this late in the season)?

NBA Last Night: Celtics still unbeaten (beating the Heat, with more value as symbolism than in the standings), but to me, the best story was Kevin Durant hitting a buzzer-beating 3 in a second OT to carry the Sonics over the Hawks.

CBB: Memphis racks up another quality win, beating UConn in the finals of that tournament at MSG in NYC. They've done more than any other team this early in the season to prove they are worthy of being ranked No. 1 (not that CBB rankings mean anything). In the most interesting result of the night, unranked Providence absolutely smoked No. 18 Arkansas in Puerto Rico. PC underrated? Hogs overrated? A little of both?

Barry Bonds to turn himself in on Monday: What an underreported story THAT will be...

20 comments:

I was at the Hawks/Sonics game....someone should mention that Damien Wilkins absolutely carried the Sonics going for 40+ shooting 15/20 from the field...but the Durant GW was crazy...whole crowd fell silent...

How about Kenny Rogers dropping Scott Boras and A-Rod going behind Boras to get the deal done with the Yanks. If Bonds was not under indictment then I think that Boras possibly losing his biggest client would be dominating the headlines.

if y'all thought the officiating in the Pats Colts game the other week was bad you should see how badly scotland got assraped today on what might be the worst call i have ever seen in any sport. Scotland only had to tie to qualify for euro 08 which would have been the first major tournament since the 98 world cup. They were in the group of death and were predicted to finish dead last. with about 15 seconds left in the game a scottish defender is about to clear the ball and it is on his foot when an italian comes in and levels him with a forearm shiver to the head. All the commentators are enraged over how bad a call it is because Italy someone gets the free kick just outside the box. Naturally they score. I think the best line I heard was from I believe tommy smythe. He said it was a farce and it made a mockery of the game. I think this loss hurts more than any gator loss I can remember with the possible exception of the 95 fiesta bowl. When they showed the fans in the stands crying I truly felt their pain. Of course scotland were called for almost three times the fouls as Italy so I think it is entirely possible the game wasn't on the level.

Which unranked college football game has a .780 winning percentage - better than six teams ranked in the top 25? This same team has a six-game winning streak, longer than 22 of 25 teams in the top 25. They are the only two-loss team in the country that is not ranked in the top 25. They have won 17 of their last 19 games, and have one the last 13 conference games they have played. Anybody? Anybody? The polls are a sham, the BC$ is ridiculous. I hate what college football has become.

Heroin sheik wins the prize... thanks to a horrific TV contract (CSTV and MTN) negotiated by the Mountain West Conference nobody actually sees their games.

I'm not arguing that BYU should get a chance at the NC, but I think it is ridiculous that teams like Hawaii and Kanas are automatically dismissed because they haven't "played anybody". It's a broken system.

Shanoff, it's taken me a while but I think I'm close to writing you off as either confused or hypocritical. Regarding your most recent rant on Hawaii, surely you realize that by taking the stance that you have regarding Hawaii you must feel the same way about Boise State and their place in the polls, no? Look at the respective SOSs: Hawaii 120 & BSU 111. What’s the difference? BSU played (and lost to) UW in September while Hawaii plays UW to close the season. Yet, you find a way to rank a one-loss BSU team, but not an undefeated Hawaii team; can you please explain this? Your argument of Hawaii’s schedule being atrocious doesn’t pass muster given that BSU’s schedule is just as bad (and will get worse after their game today with a one-win Idaho team). Now to Hawaii's schedule. Since June took the Hawaii job he has had both Texas and Michigan State buyout of scheduled games. He also tried to schedule Michigan, UCLA, USC and Louisville this year; however, each declined the opportunity to play Hawaii (even with insanely large guaranteed payouts for the three latter teams to travel to Hawaii). Interestingly enough, UF declined a two year home-and-home with Hawaii, only agreeing to a game in Gainesville in 2008. Surely you must agree that it's tough for Hawaii to create a difficult schedule when so few teams are willing to play them either at home or on the road. So, when Hawaii beats Nevada on the road without its starting quarterback and running back you still find a way to slam them; what gives? Please, be consistent. If you're not going to rank UH due to their poor schedule, then do the same to BSU. For all of your harrumphing about UH’s 2007 schedule, have you bothered to go back and look at BSU’s 2006 SOS? I’ll assume not. However, it was ranked anywhere from the low-90s to 113th. That was behind Florida International University! Yet you proudly proclaimed that, “Boise State just might very well BE the best team in college football” after they beat what was a fairly pedestrian Oklahoma team. As I said earlier, you’re either confused or hypocritical; I can think of no other reasons that justify your logic in this case. It's almost like you've placed UH football in the same category as Duke basketball—that is, you seem to have an inability to speak dispassionately about either.

Richard, don't waste your time with Dan. He hasn't done any actual research into deciding that Hawaii isn't any good, another blogger just wrote about it and he took their word for it. But hey some unemployed loser wrote it on their blog so it must be true....right Dan?

I have no problem with Hawaii getting a BCS bowl game. I saw them play and they are legit. Sure it would have been nice if they played some serious oppostion but very few BCS teams will travel to Hawaii because of the cost. That is the very reason why they SHOULD be in a BCS game. To prove or disprove their ranking.

In basketball, if a team has a great record against a weak schedule we can at least say, wait until the tournament.

I attended the UConn-Syracuse game today. Pretty awful game as far as being a competitive game goes and even worse to see how far Syracuse has fallen. The only solace was the wife of one our party who was a Notre Dame fan. Their fate is even worse except for the fact that they seem to still be able to recruit some players.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.